


i can see your soul grow

by DontTouchTheSun



Series: i was here, i lived, i loved [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, character death but she gets rebuilt its fine, winter and penny were friends, winter is so proud of penny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 14:52:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18390641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DontTouchTheSun/pseuds/DontTouchTheSun
Summary: Snapshots of Winter's friendship with Penny, from her creation to her death to being rebuilt and further.Title comes from "Rainbow" by Sia.





	i can see your soul grow

**Author's Note:**

> apparently i can't stop writing penny fanfic. i'm hoping to eventually write less float-y, more solid oneshots but i wanted to write a thing about my headcanon that winter was friends with penny. i've never written winter before so hopefully she's IC.
> 
> as always, comments and constructive criticism is welcome!

Winter isn’t sure she agrees with this. Something seems wrong about creating a robot, a teenage robot, giving her an aura (a _soul_ ) so she’ll be alive in a way no other robot in Atlas is. The robots had been created so less humans would have to go into the midst of battle, but is it okay to send a robot with an aura into a war? If a robot has a soul, isn’t she alive? Winter doesn’t speak her worries, choosing instead to wait and believe that Ironwood knows what he is doing. At the very least, she doubts Dr. Polendina would be okay with his robot daughter being hurt and this gives her some comfort.

\---

Winter trains Penny. It takes Penny time to learn to control her swords, starting with only one before slowly working her way up to using all of them together. Winter is surprised by how easily Penny learns to fight after that. She’s a fast learned, body moving a bit mechanically but responding quickly to any attack thrown her way.

Winter has to teach her that just because Penny can be fixed up as good as new doesn’t mean that Penny can let her defense fall, that she has to use her aura to protect her. Penny seems confused but does as Winter says and eventually her aura is always up.

\---

Penny has a thousand questions, from the most basic of things to deep questions that honestly surprise Winter. She certainly didn’t think Penny was stupid, but she was naive and ignorant about so many things. It seemed, however, that once Penny was told something she could come up with numerous questions and would even spend time researching the more interesting ones. Winter does her best to answer the questions Penny poses, barely keeping up with the girl.

One day Penny’s face scrunches up in the way it does when she wants to ask a question, but no question comes out of her mouth. Winter asks what she’s thinking about. Penny nearly looks worried before she poses her question. She asks about the Schnee family. Her father had told her about faunus and after a dozen questions posed to him she had done research and of course she had heard about the Schnee Dust Company.

Winter frowns, hesitating, before giving Penny a brief overview. Her father treated Faunus badly, Winter didn’t agree with it, Winter had left and been disowned when she joined the Atlas army. Penny nods and doesn’t ask another question, instead looking at the ground and apologizing for asking. Winter assures her it’s okay, even if it hadn’t been a question she had expected Penny to ask. Even if it hadn’t been a story she had particularly wanted to tell.

\---

Winter smiles as the robot girl talks about the Vytal Festival, jumping from one topic to the next. Who she can see fight, who she might fight, what Vale and Beacon will be like, if she’ll make friends. Winter knows that Ironwood will send Penny with a guard. He agreed to let her go to the festival but only because it could help her training. It wasn’t so she could see the world or make friends, not when that could possibly reveal what she was.

Winter is certain that Penny will escape the guards. She’s certain Penny could have left the base if she truly tried but simply hadn’t, trusting in Ironwood and her father’s decisions. She doubts the same hesitance and self-control will apply in Vale. Winter hopes it won’t. Penny deserves to see the world.

\---

Winter hears about Penny’s friendship with Team RWBY, largely from Ironwood’s anger that Penny had not only managed to slip away from the soldiers but also managed to draw attention to herself. She doesn’t agree with Ironwood’s orders that Penny not interact with Team RWBY again, but she’s begun to think that Ironwood has already lost control of Penny. Penny had disobeyed the implied order to stay with the guards, she doesn’t think Penny will listen to his order to stay away from Team RWBY.

\---

She watches the matches whenever she can, both Weiss’ and Penny’s. She’s proud of them both, of how much they’ve learned and changed. She wonders to herself how close they are - Weiss hasn’t mentioned Penny but Winter knows that Penny had been seen running from Atlas soldiers with one Ruby Rose, so clearly Penny has made herself familiar with at least one team member - and thinks she might try introducing them more. It would be good for Penny and it would be good for Weiss (and it makes Winter realize that she doesn’t like what Ironwood is doing because he’s controlling Penny like Jacques controlled them).

Winter is watching when Penny and Pyrrha’s match begins. She’s watching when Penny’s swords freeze in air, Penny’s eyes widening, and then they’re thrown back on her. She’s watching when the strings wrap around Penny and she’s ripped to pieces, eyes losing their spark.

It feels like she was torn apart with Penny.

\---

Too much is happening after. Beacon falls, Grimm overrun the city, Atlas readies for war, and Winter finds her questioning Ironwood’s decisions more than ever.

It takes weeks before they finally bring Penny back to Beacon. Ironwood barely glances at her, jaw tightening, before he leaves to fulfill other duties. Dr. Polendina immediately starts trying to repair Penny and for a bit Winter’s heart feels a bit lighter. At least Penny can be rebuilt, her aura still held tightly in a container deep within her metal shell. Even as everything else seems to start cracking around them - not just her or Atlas but Remnant as a whole - this is something they can fix.

She wants to scream when Ironwood gives the order to change her code. Her emotions were a liability, there is no need for them now when everyone will know who she is. There’s no need for her to blend in. She wonders if this is just so he will feel less guilt if Penny is destroyed again, or so he doesn’t have to face possible anger from her.

Dr. Polendina looks even more angry than she feels. He yells at Ironwood for an hour but in the end it is Ironwood who wins, threatening to end the program that let Dr. Polendina make Penny in the first place. Dr. Polendina looks like he’s been hit, lips pressing into a line before he forces out a “fine.”

Winter has never questioned Ironwood’s choices as much as she has within the last few months.

\---

She hates this.

The girl is Penny and she’s not. Whatever changes to her coding and programming they made worked. The curiosity and exuberance is gone, even if the need to protect people and all her battle skills remain. 

Sometimes, though, Winter catches a spark of something in Penny’s eyes. Sometimes the questions will come quicker, a note of curiosity in her voice. Sometimes she’ll see something and her eyes will light up like they did before. These moments don’t last long, but they’re glimpses of Penny. They’re proof that Penny is still there, even if Ironwood is trying to hide her.

\---

Winter thinks that Team RWBY being there is more helpful to Penny than anything else could be. She can see that it’s hard for them to accept that she is Penny when she doesn’t act the same or remember them, especially for Ruby Rose, but that spark is in Penny’s eyes more often within those few weeks than it has been in months. She can practically see the code breaking down as Penny starts to act more like herself, face lighting up in happiness or confusion and her voice leaving behind the near monotone it had been to become more exuberant. She’s still not the same, but it’s something.

\---

Winter is more proud than ever when Penny leaves Atlas with Team RWBY. She feels comforted in the knowledge that Penny is with people who will help her, who won’t shackle her to their own desires. Ironwood is, of course, angry. He orders them to find Penny but she can see the hesitance even in the lower rank soldiers. They had known Penny, they knew she had been rebuilt different, and Ironwood’s decisions had become more and more unexpected over the months.

No one puts much effort into finding Penny to drag her back to Atlas.

\---

One day, when the war is over, Winter steps out of the base and Penny is there. Penny’s face smile at seeing her and if it’s still a bit different than her smile had been before, it’s a real smile, brighter than any Winter had seen since Penny had been rebuilt. “Winter!”

And Winter smiles back, heart lifting as the girl nearly tackles her in a hug. 

“Penny.”


End file.
